Fears that personal stress and poor relations with colleagues could lead to patients being harmed were cited yesterday among reasons the Royal Children's Hospital had ordered prominent surgeon Paddy Dewan to take extended leave.

Kidney and bladder procedures on 10 children were cancelled yesterday as the hospital hit out at Professor Dewan, who last week questioned its ability to deal with medical errors.

Women's and children's health chief executive, Associate Professor Kathy Alexander, said the hospital regretted the anguish and anxiety of parents and children whose operations were cancelled or are due to be rescheduled.

"I currently believe that the stress levels both of the individual concerned and also of the team within the department of surgery are now so high that a child undergoing surgery at the moment within that department may be under serious risk," Professor Alexander said.

Professor Dewan's enforced leave earlier this week follows months of acrimony at the hospital. He was asked to resign in April but refused, prompting a board-level inquiry into allegations against him by colleagues. Professor Alexander said complaints against the surgeon by his colleagues went back five years.

Cardiologist and chairman of the hospital's medical staff association, Dr James Wilkinson, said Professor Dewan's claims about patient safety at the hospital were false, unfair and damaging to staff and the hospital.

"Paddy Dewan is a very able, very energetic, aggressive, opinionated and passionate individual," he said. "Some individuals who have those sort of characteristics do have difficulties maintaining comfortable relationships within a team."

Professor Alexander has recommended to the board that Professor Dewan's contract be terminated. A decision will be made within a month. "The whole department of surgery has indicated to me that they can't work under these circumstances any more," she said.

She said Professor Dewan's 10 patients due for surgery yesterday "may be at significant risk if the procedures were allowed to go on".

"The situation at the moment is so stressful that there is a potential risk and I am avoiding that risk. I am not saying he is an unsafe surgeon," she said.

Mathew Dean, 12, was due for surgery on a kidney stone yesterday, his 65th operation at the hospital following his premature birth. "I couldn't believe I was in an emergency situation and had nowhere to turn," said his mother, Sue O'Connell from Geelong. "I don't want to go to another hospital. I don't want to go to another surgeon."

After meeting Professor Alexander and doctors at the hospital, Mathew went to the Sunshine Hospital, where Professor Dewan late yesterday performed the operation.

Professor Dewan said suspending him was not in the best interests of patients. "I deeply regret that interpersonal conflict has reached the point of further adversely affecting patient care," he said. " I would never refuse to work with someone just because I didn't like them."